You may not have heard of the Tatshenshini River, but it became famous in the 1980’s when plans for one of the world’s largest open-pit copper mines, the Windy Craggy mine, resulted in an international effort to protect the river, its wilderness areas and the salmon fisheries from development and degradation due to sulfuric acid runoff. The effort was successful and this resulted in the Tatshenshini – Alsek Wilderness Park and recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
As we reported previously, Pat and I both had colds at the start of this trip. It was not reassuring to hear at the pre-trip meeting from our guides, Trish and Mark, about the lousy weather that the last two trips had experienced on the river. Days of horizontal rain are not uncommon on this trip. We were told we needed 100% waterproof rain gear. Forget GORE-TEX or any breathable fabric. My rain gear was marginal; Pat’s new rain suit was unacceptable, so Pat secured a loaner rain jacket. We then stocked up on a two week supply of Kleenex, cold pills, and cough syrup. With a little luck we might live through this ordeal.
On the way to the put in, we stopped at a First Nation’s camp where they teach students and visitors the traditional ways of trapping and making shelters. Dead falls, we were told, were preferred over traps because the animal was killed immediately. Seeing a dead fall in action left little doubt about its effectiveness. When we got to the put in, it was raining bears and moose. (Yukon’s version of cats and dogs). Fortunately two of the guides, Royce and Rob, had set up a tarp, in addition to getting the four rafts ready. This rain was a particularly bad omen because this river, unlike most rivers, has it start in a dry and warm area and becomes progressively colder and wetter as it loses elevation. As we pushed off, a curious thing happened - it stopped raining! For the next several days the weather was decent, with most of the rain occurring at night.
We camped at the head of the canyon the first night, so we could run the rapids on the second day. It has been said that the rapids are class 3 with class 5 consequences. In other words, you didn’t want to fall out of the raft into the cold and swift river. Fortunately no one fell out but everyone managed to get soaked. There would be more rapids later in the trip, but this is not a whitewater river for thrill seekers. We continued to float west, deeper into the St. Elias Mountains and entered British Columbia.
After a few days on the river, we had a day to go hiking up Goat Ridge from Sediment Creek. We did see four mountain goats from the hike. Even though it was late August, fall foliage was beginning to appear. The mountains continued to gain elevation as we approached the coast. We saw numerous eagles and a few large nests. After two more rafting days, we had a 36 hour rain event during a lay-over day. Again we were fortunate to be able to congregate under a large tarp or sleep in our tents.
The river changed dramatically as we approached the junction with the much larger and colder Alsek River. The river got much broader as its channels braided due to deposits of glacier silt. Unlike the confined river valley we had been rafting through for days, we could now see two miles across the river valley. This allowed us to see several grizzly bears chasing a raven on the far shore. Somehow the raven stayed just out of reach. We took a hike and saw two petroglyphs - it seemed odd that prehistoric people traveled through this area, but they were likely following the abundant wildlife or came to the junction of these rivers to trade.
While my former co-workers were enjoying their convention in Ocean City, Pat and I took a walk on Walker Glacier. The surface had cracks, pools, streams and moulins. Moulin is the French word for waterwheel, where the water carves a well from the surface to the bottom of the ice. Some have a purple hue. We filled our water bottles with the pure glacier water. A little further down the river we approached Alsek Lake. The lake contained icebergs that dwarfed our rafts, some over 100’ long and 30 feet above the water. They had calved from the many glaciers that surround this lake. We were able to avoid the ice blocked channels as we entered the lake and made camp on a large island. The wind shifted during the night and the guides were up at midnight moving the rafts to the leeward side of the island. When we awoke, there was ice packed along the shore, where the rafts were the night before. The sky was clear and the scenery stunning. From our camp we could see icebergs in almost all directions. Surrounding them were mountains towering 15,000 feet above the lake, an elevation difference greater than you would see in the Himalayas. We were in the middle of the largest non-polar ice cap in the world. Glaciers surrounded every peak and filled each valley. We got a glimpse of Mt. Fairweather’s elusive peak, the tallest mountain in British Columbia. We spent the day hiking to a high cliff and watching icebergs roll over, break up and disintegrate. Calling it spectacular would be an understatement. The day was so warm and wonderful even the white socks (a local type of black fly) enjoyed swarming around us. The guides, Mark and Royce, built a steam sauna on the beach and after 15 minutes in the sauna we all jumped into the ice cold lake, then back into the sauna to warm up. (Repeat as needed).
You pay a price for having a beautiful day in the middle of a coastal rain forest. On our final day, we packed up in the rain and we were rafting by 8:45 AM. The famous horizontal rain made an appearance for several hours. The wind was howling at our backs, making the rafts difficult to control as we crossed the lake to the river channel. I was soaked to the skin by the time the rain stopped. A black bear watched in amusement as we jumped around on shore trying to warm up. The rain let up as we reached the final takeout at Dry Bay, AK.
The plan was for a duel engine Hawker Sidley plane to pick us and all the gear up from a gravel runway, normally only used by much smaller aircraft. The runway was cut out of the woods and there was little extra wing clearance for a Hawker. In fact they would refuse to land if the runway was too wet, fearing that they would slide into the woods. Should they refuse to land, we would have to shuttle all passengers and gear to Yakutat AK, taking 5 trips with a smaller aircraft, and then reloading everything into a Hawker the following day. This was the fate of two previous trips. The guides did not like this alternative anymore than the 10 passengers. Our tireless trip leader, Trish, along with very rain soaked Rob, baled water from deep pools on the runway for two hours. (Passengers were not allowed on an active runway). Their efforts paid off when the Hawker successfully landed. While turning around, the plane got stuck in the mud and had to be dug out. After everything was loaded we flew back over the river, mountains and glaciers on the 45 minute flight back to Whitehorse YK. Pat got over her cold, and mine was getting better.
Our guides were great and they prepared us outstanding meals, they even dressed up silly for special meals. We said our goodbyes at dinner in Whitehouse. It was a trip we will never forget.
Don
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